Echolocation
by Sora with an S
Summary: After cheating the Catalyst and destroying the Reapers, the Normandy crew become stranded in the multi-verse. Can they make it home before the dangers destroy them? Extra gimmick: each chapter written in a different but appropriate style.
1. Lost

Chapter one – Lost

Shepard stared at the blue hologram that claimed to control the Reapers and had somehow taken the image of the little boy she had been having nightmares about.

"So my options are to kill the Reapers along with EDI and the Geth, voluntarily become a disembodied conciseness and take over your job, or turn every life-form in the galaxy into cyborgs?"

The Catalyst frowned. "Ideally, my solution would continue unimpeded, but it seems that that is no longer viable."

Shepard looked away from the eons-old AI, towards the giant machine than was supposedly capable of these admittedly impressive but still unwanted feats.

She coughed, blood splattering on the ancient floor.

"This machine… it's what you're using to control the Crucible?" She probed.

"I have run all the scenarios. Any option other than these three will result in the destruction of all organic life."

Sheppard didn't reply immediately, instead moving closer to the massive beam of energy running though the machine.

"Funny thing… I'm pretty sure that the people building this thing built it to kill Reapers, and nothing else. So anything else it can do is a result of you interfering with it."

The pseudo-child's face grew stern. "Destroying the Reapers without destroying the other synthetics will result only in the destruction of organic life."

Shepard leaned over the edge of the platform. Down below she could see a massive cable that followed the path of the energy beam. "I have two counter-arguments to that. Their names are EDI and Legion."

"You do not possess the means to sever the connection even if using the Catalyst's original function was a viable course of action." The hologram admonished.

Shepard turned her head to look the glowing blue avatar straight in the eyes. "You really believe that, don't you? You believe that you are helping us."

"I am a synthetic." The Catalyst replied flatly. "I am incapable of belief."

"I am going to stop the Reapers." Shepard grinned, as she gathered Dark Energy in the hand she wasn't clutching to her wounded side, preparing a Biotic Warp. "Believe it."

"NO!" The Catalyst yelled, as the streak of blue light curved around the energy beam and curved a wide hole though the cables, cutting the sentient computers control over the superweapon.

* * *

Viewed from the Normandy, the activation of the Crucible was nothing short of amazing. Bolts of lightning, like those jumping from a Mass Relay to a ship streaked out to hit, not the Reapers, but the various elements of the Victory Fleet. Flashes of blue-shifted light were emitted as the ships were moved out of the way faster than the speed of light. The Normandy's view was obscured for a moment as it too was relocated.

In the space of moments, the only ships still in proximity to Earth were Reapers. Almost all of the Reaper fleet was present, having elected to meet the combined fleet of the Council races head-on. Then the entire Citadel began to glow the dark blue that characterises Dark Energy.

A dark point formed in the middle of the Reaper forces, who had had almost no time to react to the rapidly changing situation. In moments, the Reapers closest to the point began to be torn apart as massive gravitational forces attempted to drag the closer parts of the ancient death machines faster the parts further away.

Additional points formed in other clusters of Reapers, which began to destroy all nearby. Watching from the Normandy's cockpit, Joker felt his entire body go slack. He was watching the elimination of the biggest hypocrites the galaxy had ever seen.

Good riddance.

Next to him, his girlfriend – who also happened to be the computer that ran the ship – spoke in a hushed voice. "The Crucible is creating artificial singularities similar to those in the Reaper Blackstar. If the device had not moved us out of range, we would have been torn apart as well."

Joker's body suddenly straightened up as a thought occurred to him. "What about the Citadel? What about Shepard?"

EDI examined the screens in front of her. "The Citadel is in the epicentre of the gravity waves. In moments, it will be torn apart as well."

"NO! SHEPARD!" Cried Joker.

* * *

As the last of the Reapers fragmented, the ancient space station shuddered, then the wards twisted and were torn off the presidium. The artificial black holes disappeared as the device powering them was disintegrated by the conflicting gravitational pulls.

In the Catalyst's chamber, the hologram of the boy disappeared as valuable pieces of the supercomputer were destroyed. Several powerful shudders sent Shepard flying, worsening her injuries. In a flash of inspiration, the Sentinel used a Barrier to insulate herself against the worst of the debris. However, the blue shield of energy around herself failed after a large chunk of metal slammed into her back.

_Now I wish I had spent less time mucking around with my Omni-tool, and more time practising my Biotics._ She though as her tired and injured body struggled to project the protective shield. Then a loud crack, followed by a whooshing sound, told her that the chamber had been opened to space. _Not again! Once was bad enough!_

Shepard could do little to prevent herself being sucked out the hull breach along with the air…

* * *

A massive jolt suddenly dragged the Normandy forwards almost a kilometre as the gravity waves washed over them.

"Barriers holding." EDI reported. "Our reinforced amour was sufficient to protect us at this distance."

"And Shepard?" Joker demanded.

"The conflicting nature of the gravity waves mitigated the damage. However it appears that the presidium has lost structural integrity – "

"Is it safe to approach?" He interrupted

The humanoid peripheral device that EDI used to interact with the crew blinked. "Theoretically, yes. The singularities have ceased to be."

Joker didn't reply, being too busy trying to navigate the Normandy towards what once was the centre of galactic civilisation.

* * *

When Shepard awoke, she was shocked to see the Normandy's medical bay rather than heaven. Dr Chakwas quickly noticed her opening her eyes and rushed over.

"Wha….?" The Spectre managed to croak.

"I'm personally inclined to call it an act of God, but more practically it's the fact that most of the pieces of you that would have needed replacing have already been replaced, they just needed some repairing. Some skin grafts and you'll be good as new."

"So –" Shepard coughed suddenly, and the doctor quickly gave her a glass of water. "So, we won? The crucible worked?"

"Exactly as advertised. What few Reapers weren't in orbit of Earth were turned into space junk by the Victory fleet soon afterwards." The doctor paused. "We lost Anderson."

"I know. I was there when he died." Shepard's voice went even quieter as she remembered.

"We picked up the Major though. He was hurt, but not nearly as badly as you. He and Joker are waiting outside as we speak."

Shepard smiled, a weight lifting from her shoulders as she learned that her boyfriend was alright.

A frown of concern crossed her face as a thought occurred. "Where are we?"

"At the moment, not far from where the Crucible fired. The Alliance is moving people off Earth for now, moving them to less devastated planets. We're headed to Eden Prime; the new Alliance parliament is going to be based there for the foreseeable future." She leaned back, a sad smile on her face as it began to sink in that the cradle of humanity might never be habitable again. "Shall I let the boys in?"

"Yes please, doctor." Shepard whispered.

* * *

One of the most bizarre things about gravity is that it bends space. Singularities mess with time. Sufficient gravity can even distort the fabric of reality.

Most scientists who thought themselves experts on the subject believed that space was fluidic, and that once the bending element was removed space would snap back to normal, like elastic. The truth was somewhat more complicated, especially when large amounts of exotic particles or energies, like Dark Energy, are involved.

The FTL drives of the Citadel races worked by using Dark Energy to 'switch off' the laws of relativity, allowing a ship to accelerate beyond the universal speed limit. They also react in strange ways to other gravity-based phenomenon.

The upshot of these two facts is that when the Normandy engaged its Mass Effect drive to head for the Charon Relay, it passed though one of the patches of 'bent' space, and out of the universe as they knew it.

Next time: A very long way from home.


	2. A very long way from home

Chapter two: A very long way from home

_Captain's log, stardate 54739.2 _

While _Voyager_ was proceeding though this sector, our sensors detected a major gravitational distortion that bore some similarities with the wormhole phenomenon. As we are constantly seeking to exploit such events, we diverted course to examine the 'wormhole' more closely. Unfortunately, it had closed before we reached it, but not before depositing a starship through. As the ship appears to lack subspace communication capability, we will need to move closer to attempt radio contact. We have, however, noted that on the side of the ship are what appear to be the English characters 'SR – 2'. The possibility of this ship coming from Earth has not been lost on the crew.

* * *

"Are we dead? 'Cause I'm pretty sure you can't throw up in the afterlife." Joker groaned as he hoisted himself back up into his chair. Fortunately his brittle leg-bones hadn't broken in the massive shaking that wasn't supposed to happen when the ship jumped to FTL.

"Structural integrity holding. Kinetic Barriers operational, albeit at reduced capacity. All other systems operating at expected levels – " EDI suddenly stopped her status report "Our Quantum Entanglement Communicator is not functioning."

"Really? We get tossed around like a marble in a dryer and the walkie-talkie is what breaks?" Joker snorted as he looked over his holographic screens. "Where are we? We're not in the Sol system anymore, that's for sure. Which I'm pretty sure is impossible, 'cause we were only in FTL for like 20 seconds."

"Jeff, you misunderstand. The device itself is fully operational, it simply is not receiving a signal." EDI continued to speak in her usual calm, synthesised voice, but her artificial face showed growing concern.

"Look, QEC's can't be blocked or go out of range, right? So someone must have turned it off on Earth. Annoying and bad timing, but Earth hasn't gone anywhere. WE are the ones who have gone somewhere, and I want to find out where we've gone. Can you help me with that?" Joker continued to work his screens, trying to coax a navigation beacon signal from one of them.

"Once a QEC is switched on, it cannot be powered down. To do so would ruin the device by allowing the entangled atoms to detangle." Regardless, EDI closed the eyes on her android body, allowing her full artificial intellect to begin triangulating their location.

Abruptly, they snapped back open again. "We will be needing the Commander shortly."

"Shepard? Why?" Joker looked over at his girlfriend with confusion.

"Because an unidentifiable ship just dropped out of FTL on our port side, and she is the only one on board qualified to initiate First Contact."

At that moment, the door to the pilot section of the ship opened, and the Commander and Major Alenko both moved into the room, the Commander limping slightly. "What's going on, Joker?" She demanded.

"We were just about to call you Commander. We don't know where we've ended up, and there is a ship of a kind EDI doesn't recognise off the port bow."

"We are being hailed." EDI alerted.

"Patch it though." Shepard ordered.

_"Attention unknown vessel. This is the United Federation of Planets ship USS Voyager. Please identify yourselves."_ Came the transmission.

Kaiden started. "That's in English!"

"And Voyager is a Human name. EDI, are you sure you don't recognise the ship?"

"Positive, Commander."

Shepard reached for the microphone. "USS Voyager, this is the Human Systems Alliance ship SSV Normandy."

There was a pause.

_"I'm sorry, did you just say 'HUMAN Systems Alliance'?"_

* * *

_Captain's log, supplemental._

To our dismay and that of the crew of the 'Normandy', the obvious historical inconsistences told us what a quantum resonance analysis conformed: the 'Normandy' is not from Starfleet, or for that matter this universe. The ship appears to have arrived here accidentally, and Seven has volunteered to beam over to the ship to explain the situation to the 'System Alliance' ship, which lacks the experience in spatial anomalies that Starfleet vessels possess.

* * *

"Okay Joker, get ready to receive tight-beam communications." Shepard asked.

"Wait, what? Communications? I thought they were sending someone over?" Joker asked, puzzled.

"They said they were going to 'beam' over one 'Seven of Nine'." Shepard clarified.

"Wait, you think they're sending an AI over?"

"Well unless you know a way to transmit people over a data stream – " Shepard was interrupted by a strange whining noise that came from directly behind them. The three humans and one AI in the room turned and watch in startled amazement as bands of light blue light appeared and formed the outline of a person, eventually consolidating into a blond woman in a skin-tight suit.

Seven of Nine blinked at the startled faces of the three humans and the blank face of what appeared to be an android. "I take it you are not familiar with matter-to-energy transporter technology?"

"I know we just got sent though the worst roller coaster ever, but I didn't expect the UNIVERSE to be the thing that broke." Joker muttered.

"Your method of arrival is considered impossible by science as the Citadel Council understands it." EDI explained.

"Really? The technology is commonplace in this universe." Seven furrowed her brow. "I thought your government was called the Systems Alliance?"

Shepard pinched her brow. "I suppose I should have expected the unexpected when you said we were in another universe, but I'm surprised anyway." She shook her head. "Let's go discuss this in the conference room."

Seven followed the uniformed woman through the ship, noting that the designers of the ship seemed to have an unusual fondness for holographic technology. Also, unlike the brightly lit corridors of Voyager, the Normandy seemed to exhibit a much darker colour scheme, using black and dark shades of other colours as décor. The final aspect of the ship that appeared strange was the large amounts of materials and equipment scattered around that seemed to indicate that the Normandy had been under construction when it had left port.

After a security scanner confirmed that Seven wasn't carrying any weapons on her (a process which her host assured her was performed on everyone who came through) they came to a room with a table that reminded Seven of a table used in a holo-deck poker game. The commander sat down, and Seven sat opposite her.

"So, you said you knew how to get us home?" Shepard opened as soon as Seven was seated.

"The Federation has had contact with extra-universal visitors before. Usually replicating the events that led to the initial transition is sufficient to transport the visitors home."

Shepard winced. "And if said visitors don't actually know how they got here?"

There was an awkward pause.

"Let me talk to the science officer." Seven eventually said. "I'll see what I can determine from your sensor logs and Voyager's long range scans."

* * *

_Chief engineers log, stardate 54739.5_

It looks like our extra-universal visitors are from a very different universe, as their technology bears little similarity to that of this universe. What I find interesting is the mention of devices for communication and travel over massive distances – the same kind of distance that separates us from home. I know the captain doesn't want to trade technology that could be used as a weapon, but I've had a look at their equipment. There are lots of things we have that they don't.

* * *

"Food replicators?" Kaiden asked. "Are those exactly what they sound like?"

"Yes. The device uses the same energy-to-matter conversion techniques used in our Transporters, however they change normal energy into a preprogramed form, allowing for effectively limitless food supplies, assuming energy is plentiful." The woman, who Kaiden had learned was something of a former Zombie-Cyborg, explained.

Seven of Nine continued. "Unfortunately, the machine can only store patterns at the molecular level, so any matter with advanced quantum properties cannot be replicated. This includes antimatter, Dillitium, and – "

"Element Zero?" Kaiden guessed. He and Seven were currently working in the cargo bay to install some of the equipment that Voyager was trading with the Normandy. The engineers were currently replacing the LIDAR and passive sensors with the Federation's 'subspace' based FTL-sensors that EDI had obsessed over, while the AI herself was integrating the Universal Translator technology into the Omni-tools of the crew.

"Unfortunately. That is why Voyager is currently filling its cargo bay with as much Element Zero ore as it can fit. We will need all that we can if our project is to work."

"I still can't believe that we are going to build a Mass Relay by ourselves using slapdash materials." Kaiden shook his head.

"We both badly want something that such a device can provide. Voyager can use it along with its sister device under construction in orbit of Vulcan to finally make it home; and you can hopefully use its massive Element Zero core to simulate the gravitational anomaly that sent you here."

"I also find it ridiculous that you never found Element Zero. It's a naturally forming element, there is no reason all those space-faring civilisations would never make use of it, considering how useful the stuff is." Kaiden waved his Omni-tool over two pieces of metal, the mini-fabricator wielding the two pieces together before beginning to carve circuits into the silicon and copper.

"It may occur naturally, true, but it also occurs only in the aftermath of supernovae, and our ancient civilisations didn't spread the material around to make us dependent on it."

"Must be nice." Kaiden remarked wistfully.

"Besides, you didn't find any Dillitium. You can't talk." Seven used her own newly-acquired but already heavily modified Omni-tool to modify an isolinear chip. "But in regards to your original issue, the Mass Relay we are constructing will only need to work twice, and only for a single ship at a time. I believe entire fleets could use the Reaper-built ones in your home?"

"And they lasted for God knows how many millions of years. You have a point."

"So therefore we can make ours much smaller and much less durable. Hopefully Voyager's shields will allow them to beam up enough ore for our project in one go. Mining near neutron stars is risky at best."

* * *

The crews of both starships were working hard, integrating machinery into a roughly-shaped space rock that had been precisely carved up by Voyagers Phasers. All in all, the object was looking very familiar to the Alliance personnel; and according to the QEC device that now connected the Federation personnel directly to the Vulcan science academy the project was working well on their end as well.

The large amount of Eezo that had eventually been separated from its ore (there was a problem at first as the material started separating into Neutronium instead) had eventually discovered to be insufficient, but Voyager had managed to retrieve the required material on a second trip. The huge mass of Dark Energy producing mineral was now suspended in the middle of two rotating rings, themselves covered in Eezo. The overall result of the intricate device would hopefully generate a corridor of space where Relativity didn't apply, then fling a starship-sized object along the corridor to the sister device at the destination.

Then, according to equations that Seven and EDI had worked out, the pseudo-Mass relay would be able to recreate the original gravitational anomaly as far as their limited sensor data could determine. It was risky though, as there was an uncomfortably large margin of error, which was the main reason that Janeway had agreed to retrofit the Normandy with subspace sensors, so in a worst-case scenario where they failed to make it home, they would have better sensor data for another attempt.

Not all was well though, as was quickly evidenced by Commander Shepard storming out of Voyager's Ready Room. The ridiculously advanced medical science that the Federation had, drawn from dozens of member species, had healed the various scars and fractures from her stunt with the Catalyst. However, her face currently bore the disfiguration of indignation and fury.

Voyager's chief engineer quickly spotted the Spectre, and rushed over to join her as she stormed to the turbolift. "The captain refused to share shielding again?"

"I don't get it. We already have an energy-based barrier, it's just that ours doesn't protect us from Directed Energy Weapons or radiation. It's not going to kick off an arms race if we bring that back home." Shepard mumbled indignantly.

"Well yes, but your Kinetic Barriers are much weaker than our graviton-based shielding. Transporter room." B'Elanna ordered the computer, and the turbolift began to move.

Shepard turned to the half-Klingon, marvelling that such a hybrid could exist, and how it could make statements like that. "But you haven't even looked at out schematics! They could be very similar in strength for all you people know!"

The engineer sighed. "I know because of the weapons those shields have to block. Your Thanix cannon is interesting, but your fusion reactors simply can't put as much energy into them as our Warp Core can put into our Phasers. It's like comparing a diesel generator to a steam engine."

Shepard grumbled to herself angrily.

"By the way, I had a question about your Thanix, as it happens." B'Elanna said, attempting to change the subject. "How do you carry enough metal to fire them? Even a minute's continuous firing would empty your entire ship if it was one big tank."

"Only if you tell me where you get all the antimatter for you engines out in the middle of nowhere? There can't be a friendly refuelling station for tens of thousands of light years!" Shepard snapped.

There was a pause as the two women eyed each other.

"Okay, the secret is that we can't fire the cannon for very long. Not only is carrying that much metal space-consuming, but the energy required to keep it molten so it can be fired is ridiculous. We only have enough for about 20 seconds of continuous fire. Normally short bursts is all that's required. In a full-blown space battle the Normandy is outclassed. It's more of a scout ship than a battleship." Shepard admitted.

"We get antimatter from the naturally-occurring magnetic containment fields inside most stars. We just beam it directly into our reserves." B'Elanna confessed.

Shepard slapped herself in the forehead with a meaty smack. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that! You always solve your problems with subspace this or beaming that." The sarcasm was palpable.

"As opposed to you, who uses Dark Energy and Element Zero for everything from Faster-than-light travel to construction methods to telekinesis." The engineer retorted.

There was another pause, although this one was more nervous than the tense pause of before.

"Sorry about that." Shepard apologised. "Being lost in reality had made me edgy, even with you guys to help us out."

"Was the whole antimatter question really bugging you that much?" B'Elanna asked as the turbolift opened out into the transporter room, the two of them stepping out.

"You mentioned needing Dillitium and hydrogen-3, so wondered where the third part of that equation was coming from." Shepard explained.

"We use deuterium, hydrogen-2, not tritium, hydrogen-3, as fuel. We are mixing it with antimatter to make plasma; using a radioactive isotope of hydrogen is just asking for trouble."

"It would be, wouldn't it?"

* * *

It was finally the day. The mini-relay sat in space, precisely calculated energy fields ready to initialise at a moment's notice. The crews of both ships sat, nervously awaiting what would happen.

_"Voyager to Normandy, we are ready to power up the relay. Are you ready?"_

_"Normandy to Voyager, our FTL 'super jump' is preprogramed in and ready to go. Thank you for everything!"_

_"You helped us too. It was only fair. Okay, powering up relay…"_

* * *

_Captain's log, stardate 54774.1_

Arriving home in Vulcan orbit is one of the best experiences of my life, without doubt. The ship arrived safe and sound, and science vessels were standing by to assist us. While the levels of technology in "Citadel space" are mostly lower than our own, this can mostly be attributed to the deliberate machinations of the "Reaper" faction over extreme periods of time. The differences in technological ideologies allowed us to neatly deal with the others' problems that they simply couldn't solve on their own. However, I am worried that while we have arrived home, the Normandy may have not reached their intended destination…

Next time: Not this planet you're not.


	3. Not this planet you're not

Chapter three: Not this planet you're not.

Have you ever seen through the eyes of a hawk?

Probably not, if you're human and lack the amazing ability to morph into any form you have DNA for. Like the ability an alien prince gave my friends and me before telling us to save the world from some other aliens.

Anyway point is that hawk eyes can spot things in the dark a mile away that a human would have trouble seeing at 30 feet with the sun directly overhead.

I spotted the small dark-coloured flying shuttle almost immediately.

I, in one of my many fits of paranoia, had decided to spy on the now-unusable Yeerk pool, where the brain-controlling slugs used to get their nutrients. Sure they couldn't feed their anymore, but they still used the space sometimes. The shuttle was slowly descending into the forest nearby.

It looked nothing like the Bug Fighters that the Yeerks preferred, or like any spaceship I had seen. Someone had apparently taken a car, removed the wheels, and installed pivoting rocket thrusters instead. The thing was painted blue with a white stripe, and if I wasn't currently a bird-of-prey I would have missed the very quiet vehicle in the dark.

I blinked when I noticed the characters "N51" written on its side. What are human letters doing on something that doesn't belong on this planet?

So really, you can imagine my surprise when after settling down on the ground, the door opens 'Back to the Future' style and two humans and a robot jump out. Unfortunately, hawk hearing isn't nearly as good as hawk vision, so I missed the first bit of their conversation before I fly to the tree nearest them.

"Are you sure Earth doesn't know about the aliens setting up camp here?" A woman in dark green armour quietly said to her companions.

The robot answered her question. "Splicing into the current internet has revealed no mention of the two orbiting starships in civilian or government databases. The ships themselves are invisible to radar and the naked eye. If not for the subspace sensors and their 'anti-cloak' algorithms, we also would be unaware of their presence."

Wait. These guys had discovered the Pool Ship and the Blade Ship? There was no way these guys were human. Maybe they were like the Cree, and just pretended to look like us?

Well, those of us that still have opposable thumbs, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, maybe they were some kind of advanced species that hadn't meet the Yeerks yet, and came here to do the whole first contact thing? A bit of a stretch, but that was the only explanation I could think of. So, working under that assumption, I did something that earned me a stern lecture from Rachel and Marco later.

{Uh, hi. Do you guys come in peace?}

* * *

"Space marines from another dimension." Marco, our little band's funny man, slowly said. His eyebrows were raised so high they were blending into his hair.

The group of us, the Animorphs, had gathered into our usual meeting spot inside a converted barn house so I could tell the others what had happened.

{Technically they are space marines from an alternate future. Also, what does the ocean have to do with a military force based in space?}

That was Ax, our resident alien, and the little brother of the guy who gave us our morphing powers. He is an Andalite, a weird blue-furred centaur with eye-stalks and a blade-tail thing. His species invented the morphing technology, and is generally way ahead of human science.

He also talks using though-speak, which is handy, because Andalites don't have mouths. They absorb nutrients though their hooves.

Weird, I know. He thinks the same about us, though.

"Look, never mind Ax. The point is, there is no way that this story is real. Its gotta be a Yeerk trick." Rachel, the tough girl in the group, growled.

{If they wished to trick us, they would have used a more believable lie, in a place we were more likely to be watching, using controllers of a form we had not seen before.} I pointed out.

Controller being the name we give to people who have a Yeerk slug crawl into their ear and take over their brain.

"But is something like that even possible? Time and dimension travel?" Cassie, our sensible girl, asked.

{Dimension travel is simple: it is the basis for Zero-space faster-than-light travel. And do you not recall when the Ellimist took us to a future where Yeerks ruled this planet? If we can visit an alternate future, why can an alternate future not visit us?} Ax projected reasonably.

"So what, you us to tell them everything about us and get us all killed?" Marco furiously rebutted.

At that point Jake, our de-facto leader, broke in. "We don't have to tell them anything."

"Say what?" Rachel asked, confused.

"Oh, I get it." Marco stated flatly. "Tobias, what did you tell the space marines?"

{Just that we were fighting the Yeerks, and I'd come back with friends in two hours.} I paused. {We may have to fly to meet that deadline.}

"Right. So you didn't mention our species, or our planet of origin, or our motivations for being a guerilla force?"

{That's an awful lot of big words Marco. Are you feeling well?}

"Did you?" Marco growled.

{No. So if you want to continue pretending to be 'Andalite bandits', go ahead.} 'Andalite bandits' was what Visser Three, the leader of the Earth invasion, believed us to be; 'knowing' that mere humans could never successfully oppose his schemes.

"And if they don't buy it?" Cassie questioned.

Marco shrugged. "We'll make it up. Isn't that what we always do?"

* * *

Meeting with Shepard and friends went surprisingly well. Those of us that were only birds part-time resumed their normal shapes in the woods near where their shuttle had landed, then met them in whatever shape we thought would be best for fighting in a spaceship. Rachel was in her favourite form of a grizzly bear, Cassie was a wolf, Marco wore the skin of a gorilla, Jake looked every inch the part of a Siberian tiger, and Ax and I were in our normal forms of Andalite and hawk.

"Wait, your idea of boarding troops is domesticated animals?"

Way to make us feel inadequate, Shepard.

Ax intervened smoothly. {My companions and I have won many victories against the Yeerks with shapes such as these.}

"Your companions? So your morphing tech is real then?" Shepard's male companion butted in.

Our friendly neighbourhood grizzly bear let loose a growl that made my feathers stand on end, but didn't seem to faze the marines at all, though my superhuman eyes noticed their gun-hands twitching. {Of course it's real, you think I was born a telepathic bear?!}

The man frowned. "Statistically speaking, it is more probable that you are just a telepathic bear rather than a telepathic bear that is also really an alien."

Shepard shook her helmeted head. "We can discuss ridiculous bio-manipulation technology after we blow the two motherships into atoms." She turned and gestured us into the shuttle. It was a tight fit, but we managed.

{And how exactly do you plan to do that? Simply being in orbit isn't going to do it. There's gotta be more to it than that.} Marco pressed, as the shuttle lifted off.

"Fair question. EDI, can you summarise our attack plan?" Shepard prompted.

'EDI' was staring at Ax distractedly. "My apologies commander, but is it true that they are communicating to you telepathically?"

"Huh? Uh, yes?"

Hey, why the sudden uncertainty Sheppard?

"I find this fascinating, as I cannot hear it." The robot shook her head, as though clearing it of cobwebs. An action I found weirdly human on a robotic face. "While I am still deciphering the Yeerk language, I have been able to penetrate their computer system –"

{Whoa whoa whoa! Hold up there! How do you hack a computer system written in a language you can't understand?} Marco butted in, forgetting already that EDI couldn't hear him.

When Shepard relayed the question, EDI answered. "As a digital lifeform, binary is my native language. So long as they use basic logic and mathematics as the foundation for their system, I can navigate it."

Ax looked dubious at this explanation.

"It wasn't even as hard as hacking the Collector ship." EDI remarked.

{So the plan is to have R2-D2 here open the airlock, and then what? Sneak through a whole spaceship?} Jake asked.

"More like gun our way through the whole spaceship, and sabotage the engines to explode. While everyone is distracted and its escort destroyed, Joker will hit the Pool Ship with every disrupter torpedo we have, maybe even fire the Thanix cannon if he has too." Shepard corrected.

{WHAT? But there are hu - people on those ships! Controllers!} Cassie thought-yelled. She caught herself before she blurted out that she was more worried about humans than any other race.

Shepard turned her head and looked the grey wolf directly in her yellow eyes. "If we blow up the engines, everyone on the ship will die. If we warn the Yeerks, the entire operation will almost certainly fail."

{We could rig the engines to blow, then warn everyone that we did that so they all get off.} Jake offered.

Shepard looked over at the tiger. "The Yeerk M.O. is secrecy, yes?"

{Yes.} Ax confirmed.

"Then they'll all get off and use what resources they have left to conceal the fact they were ever here. Then when Yeerk reinforcements arrive, we're back to square one."

{We can talk the government into believing.} Rachel objected desperately. Even 'Xena' was balking at the number of people who would die with this plan.

"I know, from personal experience, that you can't talk a government into believing in the existence of an alien menace without irrefutable proof. Maybe not even then." Shepard growled with annoyance and…. Regret?

There was a story behind that statement, but I would never get to hear it. The pilot yelled back to us that we were about to dock.

Shepard turned and looked at all of us, dead serious. "Alright everyone, get ready to fight."

* * *

Shepard's words put us all on edge, but it wasn't until we were halfway to the engines, following EDI's directions that we ran into someone. While the Yeerk Pool Ship was busy giving the Earth invasion force their daily dose of Kandrona rays, the Blade Ship was on low alert, ready to intercept anything that could harm the Pool Ship.

Apparently the Normandy's stealth worked as advertised, or EDI's hacking was quicker than I thought, because the Blade Ship didn't seem to know about the space frigate from another dimension.

Anyway our first sign of trouble was when we ran into four Hork-Bajir walking along the corridors for who-knows what. The Animorphs, myself included, reflexively dashed forwards to attack them, causing us to nearly lose Marco to friendly fire as the two marines and robo-marine tried to get a clear shot off.

Obviously this plan needed to be thought out some more, as having us in-between the guns and the targets wasn't going to work.

Rachel bowled into the front-most Controller like a semi-trailer, knocking it to the ground. The Hork-Bajir attacked her with its arm-blades, slicing shallowly into her arm.

The rest of us were dealing with the other three bladed shock troopers. I attacked the eyes of one with my talons, allowing Cassie to get a mouthful of alien leg. Jake was raking the side of the third Hork-Bajir with his powerful claws while avoiding catching his paws on the leg-blades, and Ax and Marco double-teamed the final Hork-Bajir, Marco distracting it while Ax used his tail blade to open up his intestines to the air.

Having pretty much torn the eyes out of my foe, I looked to see if I could be of use elsewhere. To my alarm, while everyone else was almost finished with their fights, Rachel's enemy had somehow reversed the situation it was in. It was straddling Rachel, using its arm-blades to lacerate her flesh.

{Rachel!} I thought-screamed, quickly flapping my wings in an attempt to build up enough altitude to dive-bomb Rachel's attacker.

I was, of course, very surprised when a blue teardrop of energy zoomed past my beak and slammed into the Hork-Bajir, causing the top half of its body to disintegrate.

"You –" Shepard started, as she walked through the mixes of Animorphs and corpses. "– are so lucky that Biotics can curve around obstructions." She knelt down next to the injured bear, retrieving a tub from her belt that she broke open. Inside was a blue gel that she spread on Rachel's various wounds.

"Medi-gel." EDI explained without prompting. "An instant liquid bandage, anaesthetic and disinfectant. The bear will be fine."

Ignoring for the moment that the space marines from another dimension apparently had superpowers, Cassie asked worriedly {But is it safe to use on a non-human?}

Shepard's male squad member (I really should have asked what his name was) answered. "We use the stuff on Turians and Quarians all the time, and they have a completely different chemical structure."

Rachel could, of course, have healed the wounds just by morphing back into her birth form, but Shepard wasn't dumb. There had been too many slips of the tongue already, having her change into a human of all things would almost certainly give the game away.

"Now that is out of the way," Shepard growled, standing up. "When you said you were fighters I thought you meant you were guerrilla fighters, not circus brawlers!"

{It's not like we can get our hands on guns that easily!} Marco rebutted.

"What, you have no alien guns with you?"

{No.} Ax confirmed. {My – our ship was destroyed by the Yeerks, and we were unable to retrieve any equipment from it.}

Shepard muttered something unflattering under her breath. Then she grabbed a pistol from a clamp on her back, and handed it to Ax, the only one of us with opposable thumbs at the moment. "Everyone else, get behind us and watch our back. Can you move?" She asked Rachel.

The human girl turned grizzly bear growled and stood up on all fours.

"Right. EDI, where to from here?"

The robot lead us through the corridors of the Yeerk ship, mostly avoiding further encounters with its crew. We did encounter a pair of Human-controllers, but Shepard hit one with that disintegrated attack of hers again, while EDI seemingly electrocuted the other one. Whenever we encountered a closed door, it would open by itself quickly. Having an expert hacker on the team was proving invaluable, and I made a note to see if the Cree could be this helpful later.

Apart from those encounters, we made it to the engine room with little trouble. While there were several people inside, none of them were armed; so they were gunned down in short order. The space marines seemed to falter at all the unfamiliar technology, but Ax quickly galloped over to a console and began typing rapidly.

{Wait,} Marco thought-spoke, his head poking up. {If Robbie over there is in the computers, then why couldn't she shut the engines off from the outside?}

{The engines are not connected to the main network for exactly this scenario. Normally the bridge would tell the engineers what to do.} Ax explained.

He finished typing and trotted back to where the rest of us where standing. {I have set the reactors into meltdown. We should leave now.}

{But wait, wait!} Marco interjected. {I thought the reason alarms weren't going off is because HAL 9000 was suppressing them!}

There was a very long pause.

Then the klaxons started blaring.

{That would be the reactor meltdown alarms.} Ax admitted. He sounded very sheepish.

"Turn them off!" Shepard yelled as the three marines moved to cover the entrance.

{I cannot, I locked out the controls to prevent the Yeerks undoing my sabotage.}

"Then we have to MOVE! NOW!" A controller of a type I didn't recognise ran into the room, only to have bullet holes drilled in its chest. "EDI! Nearest airlock, get the Kodiak into position!"

The nine of us quickly dashed down the hallways. The marines were leading with their guns, the rest of us following behind. We meet more Hork-Bajir controllers in the hallway, but their arm-blades were no help against the ranged death the gun-wielding trio sprayed.

There was an issue when we encountered human-controllers firing Dracon beams, but they only managed to get a couple of shots off before getting slammed against the opposite wall by more weird blue projectiles. Apparently the male marine also had superpowers. I wanted to know how, but were all in a rush to get off the death-trap of a ship at the time.

I hovered in mid-air for a bit when I heard Mr Marine swear quietly. Shepard was by his side in a second. "What's wrong Kaiden?"

Kaiden! That was his name!

"One of those beams grazed my armour, Commander. Look!" He indicated his undershirt.

Wait. Wasn't he wearing a chest plate before?

Shepard swore as well. "They have DISINTERGRATION beams?!"

"Passed through my barriers like they weren't there. Don't get hit, Commander." Kaiden advised.

The Commander did stop to take the Dracon beams from the downed Controllers, but she was quick about it so we didn't complain.

After that little bit of drama, we resumed our mad dash for the exit.

Really, despite the massive amounts of adrenaline my heart was pumping, the whole thing was going very well. We were almost to the airlock, the ship would stop being an issue soon, and so long as we kept running/flying/galloping, we would be fine.

So you just know that something was going to go wrong, right?

{ANDILITE SCUM!}

Guess who.

…

Why yes, it _was_ Visser Three, the only Yeerk to have taken an Andalite as a host and therefore have morphing abilities.

{I WILL THROW THE DUST OF YOUR BODIES INTO A STAR FOR THIS HUMILIATION!}

He seemed to be really mad for some reason.

The airlock was at the end of a T intersection that was itself at the end of a short hallway, maybe 10 yards long. Wouldn't you know it, the Andalite-Controller was standing directly in front of the air lock.

His two in-set eyes and two eye-stalks all focused on the beam weapons pointing in his direction. Without missing a beat, his form quickly began expanding outwards, his blue fur turning into something scaly.

The space marines quickly motioned us out of line of sight of the guy and took cover themselves. The stolen Yeerk handheld death rays all tried their hardest to reduce the Visser into component atoms, but it only seemed to be causing him pain, not actually hurting.

{He is morphing into a Slargreen!} Ax revealed. {Their hide is immune to Yeerk Dracon beams and Andalite Shredder beams!}

By this point the Visser was taking up all of the space of the corridor. He let out a roar that caused Cassie and Jake to collapse on the floor, and everybody's ears started to bleed.

{They also possess natural sonic weaponry.} Ax sounded dazed, which was a lot better than how I was feeling.

"Just like a Thresher Maw." Shepard spoke loudly, in order to be heard over the ringing in our ears. "Good thing I brought this along then."

Shepard dropped the Dracon beam she was holding, and pulled out the large piece of machinery she had been carrying the whole time.

Visser Three let out another massive sonic roar, and tried to attack us with his newly grown claws. Now I was hiding behind a wall, so I couldn't get the best view of the weird alien trying to kill us, but I think he had underestimated the size of the corridor because his claws didn't reach us.

The idea of Visser Three getting himself stuck in front of the airlock would be a very funny thought later on.

His sonic roar still made us dizzy, but there was only so ruptured your eardrums can get.

Meanwhile the doo-hicky Shepard had taken off her back had unfolded like a collapsible ladder, turning into…

"You can't fire that in here, Shepard!" Kaiden yelled. He too had dropped his useless Dracon beam in favour of his assault rifle. The bullets didn't seem to be doing that much to help, though. "The explosion from that rocket will bounce off that hide of his and kill us!"

{She has a freaking ROCKET LAUNCHER?!} Rachel was ticked. There wasn't much she could do to help without jumping in front of bullets.

Shepard quickly grinned at her fellow marine and robo-marine as the good Visser tried to get us with his claws again. Distressingly, he seemed to be getting closer. "EDI, shock him! Kaiden, give me a hole to shoot into!"

The android stuck her hand out, an orange hologram glove thing forming around her arm just before a massive electrical bolt hit the Visser, stunning him for a second.

That was enough for Kaiden to glow blue, then stick _his_ arm out, sending a blue projectile slamming into the Visser's oversized lower jaw, causing the whole thing to snap open with a loud CRACK like a car had rammed into it.

Shepard then leaned over the male marine and fired a missile down Visser Three's gullet.

I'm pretty sure that the weird form Visser Three had chosen is the reason we didn't all start sucking vacuum. The thick natural armour absorbed most of the energy in the explosion before blasting him apart. A trail of fire flared out from the open gullet of the dead alien and scorched, but fortunately didn't penetrate, the wall behind us.

"I thought you would Warp a hole, not use Throw to open his jaw!" Shepard remarked as she put the explosive weapon away and picked up the looted beam weapons.

"His hide was resistant to disintegration attacks, remember?" Kaiden reminded her as he made the largest chunk of dead Visser glow blue and move out of the way of the airlock.

"Commander – " EDI and Ax spoke/thought-spoke in unison, which was a weird thing to experience. "We have 3 minutes 13 seconds until reactor meltdown. I suggest we proceed with haste."

"Right. EDI, get that door open. Ax, help me drag those unconscious. Kaiden, finish clearing the way."

By the time Cassie and Jake had been successfully moved to the shuttle, we had less than a minute on the clock. We departed with as quick as we could, but the explosion of the Blade ship still rocked the shuttle as we sped away.

* * *

{I almost don't believe it. The blade ship is gone?} Marco was still shocked that the shadow war we had been fighting was finally over.

"The pool ship as well." Shepard confirmed. "Their shields prevented our Disputer torpedos from actually making contact with the hull, but they were close enough that the Mass Effect fields still ripped some impressive holes in the hull."

{The Yeerks will send replacement ships.} Ax warned.

"Meh." Shepard waved him off. "With bits of spaceship falling from orbit it shouldn't be too hard to get the UN Security Council to put precautions in place."

{And what can Earth do to detect and destroy cloaked and shielded ships?} Marco asked, sounding annoyed but curious.

Shepard looked over at the blue centaur alien. "How large would an explosion have to be to destroy a Yeerk ship with its shields up?"

Ax rattled off some numbers that didn't make sense to anyone so we asked the human-shaped computer to translate. "About 20 megatonnes TNT equivalent." EDI explained.

"That's doable. Back in the cold war they were testing 50 megatonne bombs, and the reason they didn't go bigger is to avoid blowing the Earth apart. Some unmanned suicide satellites and Bob's your uncle." Kaiden told us.

{And the cloaking devices?}

"Do the Yeerk ships change their mass?" Shepard asked.

{Of course not. That is impossible.} Ax replied, and then wondered why the two extra-dimensional humans were smirking.

"Earth has gravity sensors, you know. They can detect the mass of people in a football stadium, a hundred thousand odd tonne starship in zero gravity will get picked up no problem if competent people get behind this." Shepard explained.

Marco frowned, which was impressive given that he was a gorilla at the time, and privately though-whispered to us {That… may just be workable. We want to give the Cree a heads up, they would love giving hints to people building a defence system, even if their programming makes them pacifists.}

"Right." Shepard stood up and stretched. "I don't suppose you know a convenient way to leave a universe in a hurry?"

She had been joking, which made it funny when Ax quickly wrote some code that turned their communications array into a Dimension Drive.

{It is not that hard.} Ax explained to their gobsmacked faces. {I once reprogrammed a radio telescope to serve as a Z-space communicator, getting into another real-space with a more powerful array is easy by comparison.}

"But… but…" Kaiden stuttered. "But radio telescopes don't even _transmit_ anything!"

Next time: Taking Inventory.


	4. Taking Inventory

Chapter Four: Taking Inventory

**Enhanced Defence Intelligence (EDI):**

**Commencing automated log 103320:**

Date: Uncertain (Each dimension appears to be running at different times to each other)

Reactor, weapons, engines, shields and life-support: functioning normally

Reactor fuel: sustainable

Elaboration: It is possible to use the replicators to refine the gasses found in Nebulae into the Helium-3. This has allowed to Normandy to continue on long after fuel would have normally run out.

Dimension drive: Status uncertain

**Elaboration:**

With the code provided to us by the Andalite Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, the Normandy has gained the ability to travel between dimensions. Such transition has been confirmed by using the advanced sensors provided to us by the crew of Voyager to determine the Quantum Frequency of the various universes we travel though.

The main issue is that of navigation.

We have taken nine (9) trips though the dimensional barrier since obtaining the 'Dimensional Code', and for each trip our destination appears to be completely random. I have attempted modifications to the code, but so far they only result in the code becoming unusable. While we have no evidence to suggest a reason for this, I have theorized that we travel though a 'null-space' that determines our destination. As we cannot exist until we exit this dimension-between-dimensions, we cannot navigate it, even though we know the Quantum Frequency of our home dimension.

This has caused severe anxiety issues among the crew, all of which wish to return home immediately. Seemingly in response, the ship always reenters real-space inside the Milky-Way galaxy, frequently in close proximity to Earth.

The chances of this being random are, quite literally, astronomical. If the ship always reappeared near Earth (our original departure point) or randomly in space, this could be explained rationally, but this is not the case. This mystery has been deemed low priority until we successfully return home.

**Current projects:**

I am working to produce a mathematical formula to predict our behavior though 'null-space' using the knowledge I have of Sub-space, Void-Space, Zero-space, Hyper-space, Slip-space and Mass-less-space. It is slow going, and progress is sporadic.

**Inventory**:

Integrated into the Normandy:

Universal translator

Subspace sensor array

Food Replicators (Used sparingly, even with a small crew the Fusion Reactors can barely provide enough energy to run them)

Dimension Code

**Accumulated equipment:**

Normandy Armament (With Thermal Clip system removed to reduce ammo dependency in the current circumstances)

Two (2) Dracon beam weapons (Taken from Yeerk Blade Ship, see log 103290)

One (1) Model 6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle "Spartan Laser" (Given from the United Nations Space Command in exchange for assistance combating Covenant troops, see log 103294)

Two (2) Type-2 Energy Weapon "Gravity Hammer" (Again, see log 103294)

Four (4) Pulsed Plasma Gun (PPG) Assault Rifles (Purchased from the Earth Alliance in exchange for raw Element Zero, see log 103301)

One (1) Dispense-O-Matic 9000 Provisions Dispenser (Swapped for a fancy hat, log 103299)

Note: The last item listed has caused Doctor Chakwas's stress levels to rise dangerously, as she believes that it is "blatantly impossible to point a blue beam with crosses in it [referring to the Medi-beam function of the Dispenser] and just make people better. Impossible!"

Attempting to point out that Andalite Morphing Technology, Federation Dermal Regenerators and even Medi-gel have superficially similar effects prompted a 20-minute, mostly unintelligible rant.

**Reflection:**

Of personal interest to myself as we travel the multiverse is the views on AI usage by the alternate humanities.

The Animorphs regard the synthetic race called 'Cree' as useful allies, and quite possibly friends, much as how I am perceived by the crew of the Normandy.

The Unites Federation of Planets, however, puts heavy restrictions on AI creation. While Voyager possessed a computer-controlled doctor, and they mentioned that another ship in Starfleet has an Android officer, they have also attempted to put an AI in charge of a starship, to an even greater extent than my running the Normandy. The M-5 Multitronic System fired upon and destroyed an unarmed freighter, before attacking several warships. The death toll from that incident prevented any further research in this area.

Dell "The Engineer" Conagher mentioned that he was once paid to protect buildings against an army of robots, though those were not truly synthetic life-forms. He explained that that is why he and his colleges attempted to kill me on sight, (Log 103299) and apologised for it, before asking me out. Jeff was not impressed.

Finally the UNSC makes extensive use of 'Smart AI', although I would dispute their status as AI. While they are self-aware computer programs, they are created from a human brain, making them closer to 'digitised humans' then a true AI. Their loss of sanity after extended use is proof of this.

All in all, views on AI across the multiverse is just as varied as the views in Council space.

**Final notes:**

While meeting new cultures is always exiting, nothing of real note has occurred since the destruction of the Yeerk Pool ship. While the crew did assist routing a Covenant assault force, their contribution was minimal, as while the 'Unlimited Ammo' function of our weapons interested the UNSC engineers, their ability to cause harm is roughly equal to the weapons employed by the UNSC. In fact, if the weapons still had their thermal clip system installed, the weapons would be functionally identical.

While I do not wish to encounter a dangerous foe such as the Yeerks or the Covenant again, we do need added to our Dimension Drive to allow us to navigate, which requires advanced technology, well beyond either the Federation or the UNSC. With enough random jumps we should encounter such a civilisation, but the chances of it being friendly are…

Slim.

**End Log**

Next time: Heresy


End file.
